Sunday, 29 December 2013

29 December 1539 - Foul and windy with much hail

Anne of Cleves’s journey towards London and her new husband
recommenced on the morning of 29 December 1539. Although Anne had been very
well received in England, her first sight of her new country was less than
auspicious. The weather, even for December, was appalling, with driving rain
and freezing winds. It was in fact, so bad that the Duke of Suffolk and Sir
Thomas Cheyne were concerned that they would have to delay their departure from
Dover, since ‘the day was foul and windy with much hail’.

The two men had good reason to worry about the potential
delay. The route that the princess was to follow towards London was a
well-trodden one by travellers, with overnight stops at Canterbury,
Sittingbourne, Rochester and Dartford, before reaching London. All of these
places, bar Sittingbourne, had a suitable royal or noble residence for Anne to
stay in. If they waited another day to set out from Dover, Anne would arrive at
Sittingbourne – and the common inn in which she and her party were forced to
stay – just in time for New Year’s Eve. Since she would not be travelling on
New Year’s Day, one of the most important days in the Tudor year, she would
have spent two uncomfortable nights in an inn. The only alternative to this
would be to remain at Dover another three nights which, as Suffolk and Cheyne
assessed, was ‘too many days to lose’.

It was Anne herself who saved the situation. Although the
rain and hail ‘blew continually in her face’, she agreed to move on to
Canterbury without delay, being ‘desirous to make haste to the king’s highness’.
Anne was also kindly and anxious to please those she met in England, winning
praise from those about her for her fortitude and obliging nature.

It certainly cannot have been an easy journey that day,
particularly since, once she arrived outside Canterbury Anne was forced to wait
in the rain for her reception committee so that she could make a ceremonial
entrance to the city.

Anne was met on the downs outside Canterbury by the city’s
archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, as well as a company of men that he had had to
press-gang into braving the weather. That evening Cranmer wrote a letter to
Thomas Cromwell setting out that he had been forced to retain one of the
minister’s servants to make up the numbers, since he otherwise had but ‘a
slender company’. Anne was too polite – and possibly too cold and wet – to say
anything, allowing herself to be led into the city, where she was received by
the mayor and citizens processing with torches, as well as a peal of guns.

Even when she reached her lodgings in the former St
Augustine’s Abbey Anne was not free to rest. Instead, in her chamber she found ’40
or 50 gentlewomen in velvet bonnets to see her’. Once again, she was the model
of tact in the face of the surprise additions to her party, ‘which she took
very joyously and was so glad to see the king’s subjects resorting so lovingly
to her, that she forgot all the foul weather and was very merry at supper’.

Henry had converted St Augustine’s Abbey into a lavish
palace and Anne spent a warm and comfortable night there, with a fest held in
her honour. She must have been grateful to finally retire to her bed that
night, however, aware that she would have to continue the next day, regardless
of the weather, in order to ensure that she had passed through Sittingbourne
before New Year’s Eve.

The remains of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, where Anne spent her third night in England

About Me

I'm an author and historian, specialising on the queens of England and the Tudor period. I love all things historical, training as an archaeologist before switching to historical research. I am currently carrying out academic research at King's College, London. I have written several books, including biographies of four of Henry VIII's wives, Margaret Beaufort, Bessie Blount and The Boleyn Women